Duke guard Jeremy Roach shocked the college basketball landscape when he decided to enter the transfer portal after spending all four seasons of his college career with the Blue Devils. A two-time team captain who will take his talents to Waco, Texas next basketball season and suit up for Scott Drew and the Baylor Bears for his final year of eligibility.
The transfer portal process for coaches and players alike can be a hectic one, which Roach tried to avoid as he reopened up his recruitment this offseason. Keeping things simple and revealing to Ray McCallum from Swish Cultures that Baylor was just one of two programs he was exploring while in the portal.
“So it was really kind of a quick decision, I didn’t want to elongate my decision,” Roach said. “So when Baylor called I took maybe a day or two, I met with Kentucky too, and then it was really between those two and I think Baylor was the best decision for me.”
Roach committed to Baylor just five days after it was reported that he would be entering the transfer portal, becoming one of the most coveted point guards in the recruiting landscape once again.
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Out of Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax (VA), Roach was the four-star prospect ranked the No. 22 overall player and the No. 6 point guard for the 2020 class according to the On3 Industry Ranking. Entering the transfer portal this offseason as the No. 2 available point guard and No. 11 ranked player regardless of position in the portal according to On3’s Industry Transfer Portal Rankings.
“For me just going in the process, I already knew it was kind of going to be crazy. I mean I’ve already been through the recruiting process already,” Roach explained. “Doing visits, doing multiple meetings, and stuff like that. So I really didn’t want to even go through that whole visiting and meeting with 50 million coaches. I wanted to kind of keep my schools tight and wanted to pick from all the schools that were calling me.”
Roach is one of the most experienced and productive guards in the country, coming off of a career year where he averaged 14 points, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. Joining the Bears after starting in 108 of his 130 career games with 1,469 points to his name and extensive postseason experience with 11 NCAA Tournament game appearances.
There’s no question that the Wildcats and many other programs would have loved to add Roach to their roster ahead of the 2024-2025 season. With the head coach and roster turnover at Kentucky likely playing a role in his decision.
But now that Roach revealed what his top two looked like, fans in Lexington will likely reflect on what could have been for quite some time as Baylor faithful let out another sigh of relief following rumors of their own head coach jumping ship for Kentucky this offseason.
Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 348 entries for the main catalog of its Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale Feb. 3, in Lexington. The sale will begin at 10 a.m. ET.
“Kentucky Winter Mixed offers an important marketplace for buyers at all levels before the breeding sheds open,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “There is good quality and variety among the racing and breeding stock this year, as well as a large group of short yearlings that will be a popular draw.”
Covering sires represented include Arabian Lion , Arcangelo, Constitution , Corniche , Elite Power , Forte , Girvin , Gunite , Hard Spun , Jackie’s Warrior , Mage , McKinzie , Nyquist , Olympiad , Oscar Performance , Volatile , and Yaupon .
Yearling sires cataloged include Candy Ride , Charlatan , Corniche, Epicenter , Ghostzapper , Girvin, Golden Pal , Maclean’s Music , Maxfield , Olympiad, Practical Joke , Street Sense , Tiz the Law , Uncle Mo, and Vekoma .
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The catalog’s front cover spotlights sale graduate Adare Manor , a 2024 Eclipse Award finalist for champion older mare and winner of the Apple Blossom Stakes (G1) and Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1). The back cover features additional 2024 graded stakes-winning graduates Fast as Flight , First Peace , Leave No Trace , Olivia Darling , and Running Bee .
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Entries remain open for the sale’s supplemental catalog. Fasig-Tipton will continue to accept supplemental entries over the next few weeks.
The main catalog for the Kentucky Winter Mixed may now be viewed online. Print catalogs will be available early next week.
Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available.
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This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Mason Nicholson’s 20 points helped Jacksonville State defeat Western Kentucky 73-67 on Thursday night.
Nicholson also contributed 12 rebounds and three blocks for the Gamecocks (9-6, 1-1 Conference USA). Quel’Ron House scored 14 points and added nine rebounds and seven assists. Jaron Pierre Jr. went 5 of 18 from the field (1 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 12 points.
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Enoch Kalambay finished with 24 points for the Hilltoppers (10-6, 1-2). Julius Thedford added 17 points.
House scored eight points in the first half and Jacksonville State went into halftime trailing 27-24. Nicholson scored 14 second-half points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Kentucky’s loss to Georgia felt like deja vu in that the issues that plagued the Cats vs. Ohio State and Clemson came roaring back. Once again, Kentucky let a physical team bully them around, turned the ball over too often, and didn’t create enough shots. Even though it feels like the blueprint to beat Kentucky is laminated after Tuesday night, Mark Pope believes all of those issues are fixable, even in the short term.
“Listen, it’s not triage where we have a bad team,” Pope said today. “We have a really good team. We didn’t play particularly well and so there’s a lot of things that were a little bit anomalous, where we just didn’t play great. And certainly, Georgia had some contribution to that.”
Ahead of his team’s trip to No. 14 Mississippi State, which is even more physical and talented than Georgia, Pope outlined two areas of focus: rebounding and ball protection. Georgia outrebounded Kentucky 41-34 on Tuesday, the fourth game in a row the Cats have lost the battle of the boards. On Saturday, they’ll face a Mississippi State team that ranks just outside the top 30 nationally in offensive rebounding rate (35.9%).
“We’re continuing to work on the glass right now. That’s been something interesting because we had been one of the top defensive rebounding percentage teams in the country, and that’s kind of bit us, a little bit. And so we’re rethinking some approaches there that hopefully will see immediate progress on, because we’ve been really good, right? We’ve just got to be good in this league right now, with the physicality and the way this is being played.”
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Pope seemed less concerned about the 14 turnovers the Cats committed vs. Georgia. Kentucky still ranks No. 3 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94), but that number would be a lot higher if not for their losses.
“We’ve been really good in terms of ball protection. I think we’ve been number one in the country. I think we’re close so I don’t think it’s reinventing the wheel for us on the ball protection side. We just didn’t do it well in this game.”
“So, there are certainly areas that we’re going to continue to grow and fine-tune, but there’s not a lot of total restructuring going on.”
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All season, Pope has talked about the importance of getting his guys not to default to bad habits. The Georgia loss showed that’s still a work in progress. After the game, Pope talked about how distracted his guys seemed on the floor, whether it be from the crowd, the whistles, a shot not going in, etc. Getting them to tune that out and lock in on each other will be what determines how far they go this season.
“Our guys trust and believe in each other, but when you start talking about trust and belief in where you go for answers, that’s a process that everybody is trying to find. It’s not a matter of not being able to find it. I mean, our guys have found it a lot this season. Like there’s been a whole lot of trust and faith on this team, where we’ve gone to the well, the right well, to find answers in the biggest games that have been played all season, right? But being able to get there every single time is part of the challenge, right? At the end of the year, it’s, can you get there six straight games? Can you go to the right space with all the different distractions, different vibes? Can you keep going right to the same place and keep trusting over and over and over again?
“And so that’s kind of the space we’re living in right now, is, how consistently can we be in the right spot on the floor? How consistently can our faith be placed in the right space? How consistently can we tune out all the distractions that happen around the game and kind of be locked in just to the moment? We’re fully capable. We’ve done it. We’ve done it at the highest level. We’ve done it pretty consistently. But now can we do it every time?”
When it comes to being more physical, Pope said that’s something everyone in the SEC is striving for right now. He just wants his team to understand how to do it and when to do it.
“The game always gets more and more physical in the league, and so our guys understanding — and there’s also a part of understanding where you can be really, really physical and where you can’t, right? And that’s part of our determinations. There are a lot of facets to that. One is just the physics aspect of it, of having a low center of gravity and kind of being the hit-first guy and a first hit and second, there’s all the schematics and the skill of it.
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“And then there’s also the mentality of it, and the IQ of it. The mentality of it is kind of this aggression side of it where you’re always thinking about contact, contact, contact, and then the IQ of it is understanding when and where it’s appropriate and where it can be utilized and where it’s important.”
